Departments
Courses Taught
Accompanying
Education
Artist's Certificate in Chamber Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
MM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
BM, Willamette University
Ensembles
Zurich Beethoven Trio (2012-present)
Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival (director, 2011-present)
Nonsemble 6 (2008-2015)
Q&A
What is your hometown?
Bryan, Texas
What is your favorite recording? Why?
The answer to this question changes every week, so I'll try to give you an analysis of my Spotify history.
This week, (and, frankly, quite often), the answer is Radiohead's album "In Rainbows".
Last week, I was obsessed with the new album by Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olaffson - all music by Beethoven and Bach in the keys of E. However, I've found his interpretations are wonderfully imaginative at first, but don't hold my interest over time.
Before Vikingur, I was listening to a lot of music my friend and fellow SFCM alum Philip Brezina, who plays fiddle in a hillbilly rock band called "The Brothers Comatose". They are touring this fall, check them out!
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Bicycling and Pickleball.
Dungeons and Dragons and Magic cards.
Backpacking and volunteering on prescribed burns.
Who were your major teachers?
Paul Hersh, Mark Sokol, Anita King
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
Interpolated from Paul Hersh, who I still see regularly for discussions of music and life (not so much fishing) -
"Holding your audience's attention is like hooking a big fish, and the delicate act of bringing it in - pull too hard and the line will snap, but if you let it go slack, the fish could make a run and also snap the line. Just so, you have to keep the musical tension in your performance consistently taut - never rushing ahead, but never allowing little dragging moments to let your audiences attention go slack and wander."
What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?
Should I drop this class?
(If you are asking it, and you have another option, the answer is probably yes. This is why you should sign up for more classes than you can handle at the beginning of a semester.)
What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?
I only realized fairly late in my life that music was even an option as a career - when I was 18 years old as a freshman in college. I'm still not sure why it never occurred to me earlier.
That it is possible to make a career sharing the wonders of music is a miracle, and a blessing, and we should celebrate it every chance we get.
What was a turning point in your career?
Accepting my mediocrity (ongoing).
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
Mowing lawn would be fun for a while, I guess? Maybe a veterinarian like my dad?
What is your daily practice routine?
Butt on bench for 2-4 hours.
Always spend 15-30m on something that sparks my interest that day, something that's not on my "practice list". That keeps it fresh.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
HARD QUESTION... Again, the answer changes week by week.
- Beethoven is always on the top three.
- Bach and Brahms are *usually* top three.
- Then the last spot fluctuates...Bartok and Messiaen are recent examples.
- (I went through a Philip Glass phase, maybe the repetition and atmosphere of his music would fit the them of being trapped in a Sysiphean life of playing only 3 composers 😂)
From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you, and why?
Right here, right now. The future is us.
Please list your most important collaborations.
When I was in the SFCM Chamber Music Program, I started Nonsemble 6 with five of my colleagues. We were an ensemble formed to play Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. We were fielding requests on professional concert series before we had learned the first 7 of the 21 psychedelic, atonal, incredibly imaginative and wonderful "songs" in the set. We toured with the piece (and many other 20th century and contemporary works), and probably played it over 50 times in concert. By the last few years, we had a fully staged production with sets and artwork, with supertitles, costumes, face paint, and completely by memory with stage choreography. It was by far the coolest thing I've ever done and I can't wait for an opportunity to do it again.
Biography
Ian Scarfe enjoys a wide ranging career as a concert pianist, an organizer of large-scale musical happenings, and as an advocate for the arts. He is an energetic performer, giving over 150 concerts each year as a soloist, ensemble artist, speaker, and director.
Living up to his self-described title of “musical tour-guide”, Ian always makes time in his performances for sharing the history of the music being performed, and insights into the wonders and details of each work of art. This approach has made his programs popular with classical-music-first-timers as well as connoisseurs of the genre. He is the pre-concert lecturer for Chamber Music Monterey Bay, and has been a guest speaker at events like Nerd Nights (in San Francisco pubs) and Music and the Mind (in Silicon Valley conference rooms).
He is the founder and director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, which has presented hundreds of free concerts and school programs since its founding in 2011. Dozens of professional musicians from around the world have come to the Trinity Alps mountains, deep in the heart of rural Northern California to participate in artist retreats and tours.
He is on faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and teaches private lessons to dedicated advanced students. He coaches chamber music students through the Crowden School in Berkeley and Chamber Musicians of Northern California, an organization that creates workshops for adult amateurs.
Born in Bryan, Texas, and raised on a farm, Ian moved to Oregon to study at Willamette University in Salem. Since 2006, he has lived in San Francisco, where he earned graduate and postgraduate diplomas from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He lives near the Pacific Ocean in the beautiful Presidio of San Francisco.